March 4, 2010, by
Terry Crews, the former football player who starred as the hilarious cheapskate dad Julius on "Everybody Hates Chris," came to Atlanta a couple weeks ago with his wife Rebecca to promote a reality about his family called "Family Crews," now on BET.
Most celebrities opt for reality shows when their careers are on the wane. Crews' star is on the rise. He's going to star in the upcoming Atlanta-based TBS series "Are We There Yet?" and has several movie roles in the can, including an homage to 80s action films "The Expendables" starring Sly Stallone and Bruce Willis. He also shot a movie in Atlanta called "The Lottery Ticket" with Mike Epps and Bow Wow.
“I’ve been married for 20 years with five beautiful kids,” he said at the W Hotel Midtown. “It’s a Cosby-ish reality show. It’s different from what you’ve already seen. It’s very sweet.”
The first few episodes feature Crews’ youngest son going to school for the first time, his oldest daughter (who is 22) getting pregnant and his house threatened by wildfires.
So far, ratings have been solid the first two weeks of the show, averaging about 1.3 to 1.4 million viewers.
Rebecca, who wants to seek her own acting career after raising kids for so many years, said she wasn’t too keen on the idea at first “for my life to be an open book.” But Crews, as an executive producer, said they have control over the final product, that the cameras will be there only when they want them to be there.
Terry and Rebecca do come off as a loving couple. Terry said he wanted to “demystify” life as a mid-level actor. “I’m not going to rent another house to look like superstars,” he said. “In the episodes, you’ll see our broke couch. We didn’t want to buy another one.”
Sure, he added, “it’s a nice house. But it’s not a $10 million mansion. We’re not chauffeured everywhere.”
“We’re in baseball caps hustling our kids to soccer practice,” Rebecca added.
The show is more “family friendly,” Rebecca notes, than a lot of BET fare. And it’s paired with “Sunday Best,” the gospel music competition on Sunday evenings. Faith and God are frequently referenced on “Family Crews,” but not in a ham-handed way.
Crews is proud of is work on “Everybody Hates Chris.” Although the show opened strong, it faded in its last two seasons. But it’s now in regular repeat rotation on BET and syndication. “It’s like a time capsule,” he said.
Crews is not the cheapie he is on that show. “I’m the spendthrift,” he said. “I like to spend money!” Rebecca is the Julius of the household, he admits.
In the upcoming TBS show “Are We There Yet?” based on the movie, Crews plays Ice Cube’s film character Nick. And to confuse things, Ice Cube plays his wife’s brother. I’ll certainly be writing about that show soon since it debuts in June.
On TV
“Family Crews,” BET, Sundays, 9 p.m.
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